

{"id":3395,"date":"2013-05-24T19:36:53","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T19:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/?p=3395"},"modified":"2025-12-04T18:47:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T18:47:38","slug":"notes-from-the-littell-project-a-1949-sojourn-in-soviet-occupied-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/2013\/05\/24\/notes-from-the-littell-project-a-1949-sojourn-in-soviet-occupied-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Littell Project: A 1949 Sojourn in Soviet-occupied Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a result of his growing knowledge of the harsh realities of the Holocaust and World War II, following the war, Franklin Littell went to work in the Religious Affairs branch of the Office of Military Government in U.S. occupied Germany. He served as a religious advisor to the U.S. Government, specializing in Germany\u2019s protestant churches, and he was also a leader in the growing Christian lay movement there (more on those activities later). As a result of his work and position, from time to time he was afforded the opportunity to travel into Soviet-occupied Germany. The following are portions of a letter written home about his experience the first time he made this journey in 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"789\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"5683\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-789x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5683\" style=\"width:313px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-789x1024.jpg 789w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-768x997.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-1183x1536.jpg 1183w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-1577x2048.jpg 1577w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_1-scaled.jpg 1972w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"789\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"5684\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-789x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5684\" style=\"width:296px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-789x1024.jpg 789w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-768x997.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-1183x1536.jpg 1183w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-1577x2048.jpg 1577w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_2-scaled.jpg 1972w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"785\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-785x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5685\" style=\"width:290px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-785x1024.jpg 785w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-768x1001.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-1178x1536.jpg 1178w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-1571x2048.jpg 1571w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_3-scaled.jpg 1963w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-780x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5686\" style=\"width:294px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-780x1024.jpg 780w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-228x300.jpg 228w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-768x1008.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-1170x1536.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-1560x2048.jpg 1560w, https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/files\/2025\/12\/Littell_OMGUS_4-scaled.jpg 1950w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Franklin H. Littell was Temple faculty member and scholar of religious history, whose focus lay in the history of&nbsp;sects and of Christian\/Jewish relations.&nbsp; He also brought world-wide attention to the importance of studying the Holocaust and its causes, and a large percentage of the more than 400 linear feet of papers (think the equivalent of 50 four-drawer filing cabinets) document&nbsp;that work. &nbsp;This is one of the occasional posts about what we&#8217;re finding as we&nbsp;preserve and organize the collection for research use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of his growing knowledge of the harsh realities of the Holocaust and World War II, following the war, Franklin Littell went to work in the Religious Affairs branch of the Office of Military Government in U.S. occupied Germany. He served as a religious advisor to the U.S. Government, specializing in Germany\u2019s protestant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/2013\/05\/24\/notes-from-the-littell-project-a-1949-sojourn-in-soviet-occupied-germany\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Notes from the Littell Project: A 1949 Sojourn in Soviet-occupied Germany<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":987,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,25,121,6,107],"class_list":["post-3395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-news","tag-american-jewish-history","tag-history-news","tag-littell-project","tag-top-news","tag-wwii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/987"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3395"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5687,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions\/5687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}